Systems and methods for adjusting dubbed speech based on context of a scene

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for detecting dubbed speech in a media asset and receiving metadata corresponding to the media asset. The systems and methods may determine a plurality of scenes in the media asset based on the metadata, retrieve a portion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene, and process the retrieved portion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene to identify a speech characteristic of a character featured in the first scene. Further, the systems and methods may determine whether the speech characteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches the context of the first scene, and if the match fails, perform a function to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic of the character featured in the first scene snatches the context of the first scene.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/934,230, filed Jul. 21, 2020 (now allowed),which is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/610,225, filed Nov. 1, 2019, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,755,724, which is anational stage application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of InternationalApplication PCT/US2017/030971, filed May 4, 2017, each of which ishereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

In related art systems, the sound of a speaker's voice in dubbed speechis typically adjusted to sound like an actor speaking in the media assetbased purely on the original speech of the actor in the media asset. Todo this, typical systems generate a voice profile for the originalspeech that includes information regarding pitch, temporal structure andother qualities of the original speech. The generated voice profile isused to modify the dubbed speech to sound like the original actor, whoproduced the original speech. These typical systems, though, fail toconsider context for the actor's speech in making the adjustments, whichresults in undesirable audio for the media asset that sounds unnatural.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are provided herein for adjusting dubbed speechbased on context of a scene. The media guidance application maydetermine that a media asset contains dubbed speech and decompose themedia asset into scenes, according to the media asset's metadata.Further, the media guidance application may determine the type of thescene, e.g., an action scene, a love scene, etc., using the metadata ofthe scene and check if the intonation of the actor's dubbed speech isconsistent with the type of the scene. Finally, the media guidanceapplication may modify the dubbed speech to make the intonation and thetype of the scene consistent. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a dubbed speech corresponding to the actorSylvester Stallone in the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The mediaguidance application may split the movie into a set of scenes anddetermine that the first scene is a car chase. Further, for example, themedia guidance application may determine that the dubbed speech inJapanese sounds calm where it is expected that Sylvester Stallone shouldsound alarmed in a car chase scene. Even further, for example, the mediaguidance application may adjust the Japanese dubbed speech so thatSylvester Stallone sounds alarmed in the car chase scene.

In some aspects, the media guidance application may detect dubbed speechin a media asset. For example, the media guidance application may detectdubbed speech in the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” In someembodiments, the media guidance application may in response to detectingthe dubbed speech in the media asset, receive metadata corresponding tothe media asset. For example, the media guidance application may, inresponse to detecting dubbed speech in the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven,” receive the metadata of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

In some embodiments, after receiving the metadata, the media guidanceapplication may determine a plurality of scenes in the media asset basedon the metadata. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven” has one hundredscenes, based on the received metadata. In some embodiments, afterdetermining the scenes, the media guidance application may receivemetadata corresponding to a first scene from the plurality of scenes.For example, the media guidance application may receive the metadatacorresponding to the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

Further, in some embodiments, after receiving the first scene metadata,the media guidance application may determine context of the first scenebased on the metadata corresponding to the first scene. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the first scene is a carchase scene and thus an action scene. In some embodiments, afterdetermining the context of the first scene, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve a context speech characteristic for the contextof the first scene. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine from a look-up table the speech characteristic should soundalarmed for a scene that is an action scene.

In some embodiments, additionally to retrieving the context speechcharacteristic, the media guidance application may retrieve a portion ofthe dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene. For example, themedia guidance application may retrieve the dialog that occurs duringthe first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” Further, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a set of speechtemplates corresponding to a character featured in the first scene,wherein each speech template from the set of speech templatescorresponds to a different speech characteristic of the characterfeatured in the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from a database, speech templates for Stallone for when hesounds angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused,excited, doubtful, urgent, and accusing.

In some embodiments, after retrieving the set of speech templates, themedia guidance application may compare the retrieved portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the first scene to each speech templatefrom the set of speech templates corresponding to the character featuredin the first scene to identify a speech template that corresponds to theretrieved portion. For example, the media guidance application maycompare the dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven” to each of the templates in which Stallone sounds angry, calm,gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful,urgent, and accusing and identify that Stallone sounds gentle in thefirst scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” In some embodiments,after identifying the speech template, the media guidance applicationmay identify a speech characteristic associated with the identifiedspeech template. For example, the media guidance application mayidentify that the template in which Stallone sounds gentle correspondsto the speech characteristic “gentle.”

In some embodiments, after identifying the speech characteristic andretrieving the context speech characteristic, the media guidanceapplication may determine whether the identified speech characteristicof the character featured in the first scene matches the context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that Stallone is supposed tosound alarmed in the first scene but he actually sounds gentle. Finally,in some embodiments, the media guidance application may, in response todetermining that the speech characteristic of the character featured inthe first scene fails to match the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene, perform a function to adjust the portion ofthe dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic of the characterfeatured in the first scene match the context speech characteristic forthe context of the first scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may adjust Stallone's speech in the first scene so that hesounds alarmed instead of gentle.

In order to detect the dubbed speech in the media asset, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve videoinformation corresponding to the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the video files corresponding to theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidance application mayretrieve the video information from a local storage, a remote database,or any other type of digital or analog storage. In some embodiments,additionally, the media guidance application may retrieve audioinformation corresponding to the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the audio files corresponding to theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidance application mayretrieve the audio information from a local storage, a remote database,or any other type of digital or analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to detect the dubbed speech, once theaudio information is retrieved, the media guidance application mayretrieve speech information of the character corresponding to the audioinformation. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe part of the audio files that corresponds to Sylvester Stallone. Themedia guidance application may analyze the retrieved audio informationand determine which sounds correspond to the character speaking. Themedia guidance application may achieve this by using voice recognitiontechniques or by using the metadata associated with the audioinformation. In some embodiments, once the video information isretrieved, the media guidance application may retrieve facial movementsof the character corresponding to the video information. For example,the media guidance application may retrieve Stallone's facial movementsfrom the video files. The media guidance application may analyze theretrieved video information and identify the character's face using facerecognition techniques, in order to isolate the character's facialmovements.

In some embodiments, in order to detect the dubbed speech, afterretrieving the speech information and the facial movements, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the facial movements of thecharacter correspond to the speech information. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine if what Stallone is sayingcorresponds to his facial movements. The media guidance application mayuse computer algorithms to generate expected facial movementscorresponding to the speech information and then compare the expectedfacial movements to the facial movements. In some embodiments, the mediaguidance application may, in response to determining that the facialmovements of the character do not correspond to the speech information,detect the dubbed speech in the media asset. For example, if whatStallone is saying does not correspond to his facial movements, themedia guidance application may determine that the speech is dubbed.

In order to determine the context of the first scene, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a plurality ofkeywords corresponding to the metadata corresponding to the first scene.For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the keywords“car,” “chase,” “danger,” and “shooting” from the metadata of the firstscene. In some embodiments, after receiving the plurality of keywords,the media guidance application may determine the context of the firstscene based on a subset of the plurality of the keywords correspondingto the metadata corresponding to the first scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on the retrieved keywords“car,” “chase,” and “shooting,” that the scene is an action scene. Themedia guidance application may retrieve a look-up table containing alist of keywords corresponding to each context of the scene. The mediaguidance application may retrieve the look-up table from a local orremote database, or any other digital or analog storage.

In order to retrieve the context speech characteristic in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a personalitymetadata corresponding to the character, wherein the personalitymetadata includes expected speech characteristic for each context forthe character. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe personality metadata for Stallone and determine that Stallone isexpected to be alarmed in an action scene and calm in a relaxing scene.The media guidance application may attempt to determine dubbed speechfor each of the characters, for the main character, or for any characterat random. The media guidance application may retrieve the personalitymetadata from a local or remote database, or any other digital or analogstorage. In some embodiments, after retrieving the personality metadata,the media guidance application may identify the context speechcharacteristic as the expected speech characteristic for the context ofthe first scene based on the personality metadata corresponding to thecharacter. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed in the first scene, since itis an action scene. The media guidance application may find the contextof the first scene in the personality metadata and retrieve the expectedspeech characteristic for the character.

In order to retrieve the set of speech templates, in some embodiments,the media guidance application may retrieve the language of the dubbedspeech corresponding to the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve from a database or the metadata of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven” that this movie is in Japanese. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the language from the metadata of the mediaasset or from a local or remote database, or any other digital or analogstorage. In some embodiments, after retrieving the language of thedubbed speech, the media guidance application may retrieve the set ofspeech templates corresponding to the character featured in the firstscene and corresponding to the language of the dubbed speech. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve from a databasespeech templates for Stallone in Japanese for when he sounds angry,calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited,doubtful, urgent, and accusing. The media guidance application mayretrieve a look-up table from a local or remote database, or any otherdigital or analog storage, including a set of templates for eachlanguage. The media guidance application may then find the entrycorresponding to the retrieved language in the look-up table, andretrieve the set of speech templates for that language.

An alternative method for retrieving the set of speech templatescorresponding to the character featured in the first scene is describedbelow. In such embodiments, the media guidance application may, whileretrieving the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene, retrieve an original speech correspondingto the media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve the original English speech for the movie “Driven.” The mediaguidance application may retrieve the original speech from a local orremote database, or any other digital or analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to retrieve the set of speech templates,after retrieving the original speech, the media guidance application mayretrieve a portion of the original speech corresponding to the firstscene. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve theportion of the English speech that corresponds to the first scene of theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidance application may usethe metadata for the media asset in order to determine a temporalrelation between the speech and the scenes. Thus, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve the needed portion of the original speech thatcorresponds to the first scene. In some embodiments, after retrievingthe portion of the original speech, the media guidance application mayretrieve the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene based on the retrieved portion of theoriginal speech corresponding to the first scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve speech templates based on the originalEnglish speech, for when Stallone sounds angry, calm, gentle, loving,alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing. For example, the media guidance application may identifyscenes in which the character is supposed to sounds angry and use theportion of the original speech of the scene as the correspondingtemplate.

In order to compare the retrieved portion to each speech template, insome embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a firstset of vocal characteristics corresponding to the retrieved portion. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding tothe dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” Themedia guidance application may use speech-analyzing algorithms todetermine the first set of vocal characteristics. In some embodiments,in addition to the first set of vocal characteristics, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a second set of vocal characteristicscorresponding to a speech template from the set of speech templatescorresponding to the character featured in the first scene. For example,the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding toeach of the templates in which Stallone sounds angry, calm, gentle,loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing. The media guidance application may use speech-analyzingalgorithms to determine the second set of vocal characteristics.

In some embodiments, in order to compare the retrieved portion to eachspeech template, after retrieving the first and the second set of vocalcharacteristics, the media guidance application may compare a firstvocal characteristic from the first set of vocal characteristics to acorresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application may comparethe pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm of the dialog in the first scene ofthe Japanese dubbed movie “Driven” to the pitch, pauses, rate, andrhythm of each of the templates for Stallone. The media guidanceapplication may use speech-analyzing algorithms to determine if thevocal characteristics match or do not match. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve an allowable error from a local or remotestorage that will indicate by how much the first and second vocalcharacteristics may vary in order to count as a match.

In order to perform the function to adjust the portion of the dubbedspeech so that the speech characteristic matches the context of thescene, in some embodiments the media guidance application may retrieve afirst set of vocal characteristics corresponding to the portion of thedubbed speech. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythmcorresponding to the dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbedmovie “Driven.” The media guidance application may use speech-analyzingalgorithms to determine the first set of vocal characteristics. In someembodiments, additionally to retrieving the first set of vocalcharacteristics, the media guidance application may identify a speechtemplate from the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene that has a speech characteristic thatmatches the context speech characteristic for the context of the firstscene. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve thetemplate in which Stallone sounds alarmed. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve a look-up table, from a local or remotedatabase of analog or digital kind, that contains entries for eachcontext of the scenes and a corresponding speech template.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after identifying the needed speech template,the media guidance application may retrieve a second set of vocalcharacteristics corresponding to the speech template that has the speechcharacteristic that matched the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve the set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate,and rhythm corresponding to the template in which Stallone soundsalarmed. In some embodiments, after retrieving the first and the secondset of vocal characteristics, the media guidance application mayidentify a first vocal characteristic from the first set of vocalcharacteristics that does not match a corresponding second vocalcharacteristic from the second set of vocal characteristics. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the speechfrom the first scene has a different rhythm than the template in whichStallone sounds alarmed. The media guidance application may usespeech-analyzing algorithms to determine if the vocal characteristicsmatch or do not match. The media guidance application may retrieve anallowable error from a local or remote storage that will indicate by howmuch may the first and second vocal characteristics vary in order tocount as a match.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, if the first vocal characteristic exists, themedia guidance application may adjust the first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics to match the correspondingsecond vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application may adjustthe rhythm of the speech from the first scene to be the same as therhythm of the template in which Stallone sounds alarmed. The mediaguidance application may vary a vocal characteristic by passing thespeech through a modifying filter designed to change only the neededvocal characteristic.

Another way to perform the function to adjust the portion of the dubbedspeech so that the speech characteristic matches the context of thescene is exemplified in the embodiment below. In such embodiments, themedia guidance application may, while performing the function to adjustthe portion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic ofthe character featured in the first scene matches the context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene, receive metadatacorresponding to a second scene from the plurality of scenes. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive metadata for asecond scene from the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidanceapplication may receive the metadata from a local storage, a remotedatabase, or any other digital or analog storage. The media guidanceapplication may query the storage for the media asset before, after orat the same time as receiving the media asset, the query including anidentifier for the media asset. The media guidance application may storethe metadata in a local storage, a remote database, or any other digitalor analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after receiving the metadata, the mediaguidance application may determine the context of the second scene basedon the metadata corresponding to the second scene. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the second scene is anaction scene.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after determining the context, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a context speech characteristic forthe context of the second scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve from a look-up table that the speechcharacteristic is alarmed. In some embodiments, additionally toretrieving the context speech characteristic, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene matches the context speech characteristic forthe context of the second scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed inboth scenes.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, the media guidance application may retrieve aportion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the second scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the dialog of thesecond scene. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve a first set of vocal characteristics corresponding to theportion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding tothe dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, additionally to retrieving the first set ofvocal characteristics, the media guidance application may retrieve asecond set of vocal characteristics corresponding to the portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the second scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the set of vocal characteristics likepitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding to the dialog in thesecond scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” In some embodiments,after retrieving the first and second set of vocal characteristics, themedia guidance application may identify a first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics that does not match acorresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the dialog in the first scene has a different rhythm thanthe dialog in the second scene.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, the media guidance application may adjust thefirst vocal characteristic from the first set of vocal characteristicsto match the corresponding second vocal characteristic from the secondset of vocal characteristics. For example, the media guidanceapplication may adjust the rhythm of the dialog in the first scene tomatch that of the second scene.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve a portion of an adjusted dubbed speech corresponding to thefirst scene. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe adjusted dubbed speech of Stallone from the first scene. In someembodiments, after retrieving the needed portion, the media guidanceapplication may compare the retrieved portion of the adjusted dubbedspeech corresponding to the first scene to each speech template from theset of speech templates corresponding to the character featured in thefirst scene to identify a speech template that corresponds to theretrieved portion of the adjusted dubbed speech. For example, the mediaguidance application may compare the dialog in the first scene of theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven” to each of the templates in whichStallone sounds angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic,confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, and accusing and identify thatStallone now sounds alarmed in the first scene of the Japanese dubbedmovie “Driven.”

Further, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a speech characteristic associated with the identified speechtemplate that corresponds to the retrieved portion of the adjusteddubbed speech. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat Stallone now sounds alarmed. In some embodiments, after identifyingthe speech characteristic, the media guidance application may determinethat the identified speech characteristic of the character featured inthe first scene that corresponds to the retrieved portion of theadjusted dubbed speech matches the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed and indeed doessound alarmed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for adjustingdubbed speech based on the context of a scene, in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 2 shows an illustrative embodiment of a display screen that may beused to provide media guidance application listings and other mediaguidance information, in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 3 shows another illustrative embodiment of a display screen thatmay be used to provide media guidance application listings, inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment (UE) device,in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system, in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for detecting andcorrecting a mismatch between a speech characteristic of a portion of adubbed speech of a character featured in a scene and the context of thescene in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for detectingdubbed speech in the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for performing thefunction to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech using a speechtemplate, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for performing thefunction to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech using a secondscene, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are provided herein for adjusting dubbed speechbased on the context of a scene. The media guidance application maydetermine that a media asset contains dubbed speech and decompose themedia asset into scenes, according to the media asset's metadata.Further, the media guidance application may determine the type of thescene, e.g., an action scene, a love scene, etc., using the metadata ofthe scene and check if the intonation of the actor's dubbed speech isconsistent with the type of the scene. Finally, the media guidanceapplication may modify the dubbed speech to make the intonation and thetype of the scene consistent. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a dubbed speech corresponding to the actorSylvester Stallone in the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The mediaguidance application may split the movie into a set of scenes anddetermine that the first scene is a car chase. Further, for example, themedia guidance application may determine that the dubbed speech inJapanese sounds calm where it is expected that Sylvester Stallone shouldsound alarmed in a car chase scene. Even further, for example, the mediaguidance application may adjust the Japanese dubbed speech so thatSylvester Stallone sounds alarmed in the car chase scene.

FIG. 1 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process 100 for detectingand correcting a mismatch between a speech characteristic of a portionof a dubbed speech of a character featured in a scene and context of thescene, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

Process 100 begins at 102. At 102, the media guidance application maydetect dubbed speech in a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect dubbed speech in the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven.”

As used herein, the term “dubbed speech” is defined to mean speech thatwas voiced in a language or fashion other than the original language orfashion. For example, Stallone voiced in Japanese may be considereddubbed speech. Examples of dubbed speech are lines of an American actortranslated and voiced in a language other than English, lines of anactor voiced by a different actor in order to modify the original accentor any other characteristics of the lines by the original actor, and thelike.

In order to detect the dubbed speech in the media asset, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve videoinformation corresponding to the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the video files corresponding to theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidance application mayretrieve the video information from a local storage, a remote database,or any other type of digital or analog storage by sending a query to thedatabase. The media guidance application may send to query to thedatabase before, after or at the same time as receiving the media asset.In some embodiments, additionally, the media guidance application mayretrieve audio information corresponding to the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the audio filescorresponding to the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the audio information from a local storage, aremote database, or any other type of digital or analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to determine the dubbed speech, once theaudio information is retrieved, the media guidance application mayretrieve speech information of the character corresponding to the audioinformation. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe part of the dubbed audio files that corresponds to SylvesterStallone. The media guidance application may attempt to determine dubbedspeech for each of the characters, for the main character, or for anycharacter at random. The media guidance application may analyze theretrieved audio information and determine which sounds correspond to thecharacter speaking. The media guidance application may achieve this byusing voice recognition techniques or by using the metadata associatedwith the audio information. In some embodiments, once the videoinformation is retrieved, the media guidance application may retrievefacial movements of the character corresponding to the videoinformation. For example, the media guidance application may retrieveStallone's facial movements from the video files. The media guidanceapplication may analyze the retrieved video information and identify thecharacter's face using face recognition techniques, in order to isolatethe character's facial movements.

In some embodiments, in order to detect the dubbed speech, afterretrieving the speech information and the facial movements, the mediaguidance application may determine whether the facial movements of thecharacter correspond to the speech information. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine if Stallone's potentially dubbedspeech corresponds to his facial movements. The media guidanceapplication may use computer algorithms to generate expected facialmovements corresponding to the speech information and then compare theexpected facial movements to the facial movements. In some embodiments,the media guidance application may, in response to determining that thefacial movements of the character do not correspond to the speechinformation, detect the dubbed speech in the media asset. For example,if what Stallone is saying does not correspond to his facial movements,the media guidance application may determine that the speech is dubbed.

At 104, the media guidance application may receive metadatacorresponding to the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may, in response to detecting dubbed speech in the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven,” receive the metadata of the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven.”

As used herein, the term “metadata” is defined to mean a set ofinformation that describes a media asset. Examples of what a media assetmetadata can include are title, abstract, synopsis, review, author,characters, subtitles, keywords, scenes, context of scenes, chapters,and the like.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may receive themetadata from a local storage, a remote database, or any other digitalor analog storage. The media guidance application may query the storagefor the media asset before, after or the same time as receiving themedia asset, the query including an identifier for the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may store themetadata in a local storage, a remote database, or any other digital oranalog storage.

At 106, the media guidance application may determine a plurality ofscenes in the media asset based on the metadata. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven” has one hundred scenes, based on the received metadata. Themedia guidance application may determine the scenes using markers in themetadata indicating the start of a new scene. The media guidanceapplication may create new metadata entries, one per scene.

At 108, the media guidance application may determine the context of afirst scene from the plurality of scenes based on the metadata. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the firstscene is an action scene. Ways of determining the context from themetadata are described below.

As used herein, the term “context” is defined to mean a categorizationof a scene in a media asset. For example, the context of the first scenefrom the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven” may be an action context.Examples of contexts are a love context, an action context, a dangercontext, a scary context, a conflict context, a relaxing context, a rushcontext, a fear context, and the like.

In some embodiments, after determining the scenes, the media guidanceapplication may receive metadata corresponding to a first scene from theplurality of scenes. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive the metadata corresponding to the first scene of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven.” Further, in some embodiments, after receiving thefirst scene metadata, the media guidance application may determine thecontext of the first scene based on the metadata corresponding to thefirst scene. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the first scene is a car chase scene and thus an action scene.

In order to determine the context of the first scene, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a plurality ofkeywords corresponding to the metadata corresponding to the first scene.For example, the media guidance application may retrieve the keywords“car,” “chase,” “danger,” and “shooting,” from the metadata of the firstscene. In some embodiments, after receiving the plurality of keywords,the media guidance application may determine the context of the firstscene based on a subset of the plurality of the keywords correspondingto the metadata corresponding to the first scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine, based on the retrieved keywords“car,” “chase,” and “shooting,” that the scene is an action scene. Themedia guidance application may retrieve a look-up table containing alist of keywords corresponding to each context of the scene. The mediaguidance application may retrieve the look-up table from a local orremote database, or any other digital or analog storage.

In some embodiments, after determining the context of the first scene,the media guidance application may retrieve a context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene. For example, themedia guidance application may determine from a look-up table the speechcharacteristic should sound alarmed for a scene that is an action scene.In order to retrieve the context speech characteristic, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve personalitymetadata corresponding to the character, wherein the personalitymetadata includes expected speech characteristics for each context forthe character. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe personality metadata for Stallone and determine that Stallone isexpected to be alarmed in an action scene and calm in a relaxing scene.The media guidance application may retrieve personality metadata foreach of the characters, for the main character, or for any character atrandom. The media guidance application may retrieve the personalitymetadata from a local or remote database, or any other digital or analogstorage. In some embodiments, after retrieving the personality metadata,the media guidance application may identify the context speechcharacteristic as the expected speech characteristic for the context ofthe first scene based on the personality metadata corresponding to thecharacter. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed in the first scene, since itis an action scene. The media guidance application may find the contextof the first scene in the personality metadata and retrieve the expectedspeech characteristic for the character.

At 110, the media guidance application may retrieve a portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the first scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the dialog that occurs during thefirst scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

The media guidance application may use temporal markers from themetadata to identify when a scene starts and determine the dubbed speechof the scene as the speech that occurs during the time of the firstscene.

At 112, the media guidance application may process the retrieved portionof the dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene to identify aspeech characteristic of a character featured in the first scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may identify that Stallonesounds gentle in the first scene.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a setof speech templates corresponding to a character featured in the firstscene, wherein each speech template from the set of speech templatescorresponds to a different speech characteristic of the characterfeatured in the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve, from a database, speech templates for Stallone for when hesounds angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused,excited, doubtful, urgent, and accusing.

In some embodiments, after retrieving the set of speech templates, themedia guidance application may compare the retrieved portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the first scene to each speech templatefrom the set of speech templates corresponding to the character featuredin the first scene to identify a speech template that corresponds to theretrieved portion. For example, the media guidance application maycompare the dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie“Driven” to each of the templates in which Stallone sounds angry, calm,gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful,urgent, and accusing and identify that Stallone sounds gentle in thefirst scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” Ways of comparing aredescribed in greater detail below. In some embodiments, afteridentifying the speech template, the media guidance application mayidentify a speech characteristic associated with the identified speechtemplate. For example, the media guidance application may identify thatthe template in which Stallone sounds gentle corresponds to the speechcharacteristic “gentle.”

In order to retrieve the set of speech templates, in some embodiments,the media guidance application may retrieve a language of the dubbedspeech corresponding to the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve from a database or the metadata of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven” that this movie is in Japanese. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve the language from the metadata of the mediaasset or from a local or remote database, or any other digital or analogstorage. In some embodiments, after retrieving the language of thedubbed speech, the media guidance application may retrieve the set ofspeech templates corresponding to the character featured in the firstscene and corresponding to the language of the dubbed speech. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve from a databasespeech templates for Stallone in Japanese for when he sounds angry,calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited,doubtful, urgent, and accusing. The media guidance application mayretrieve a look-up table from a local or remote database, or any otherdigital or analog storage, including a set of templates for eachlanguage. The media guidance application may then find the entrycorresponding to the retrieved language in the look-up table, andretrieve the set of speech templates for that language.

An alternative method for retrieving the set of speech templatescorresponding to the character featured in the first scene is describedbelow. In such embodiments, the media guidance application may determinea foreign talent who performed the dubbing. The media guidanceapplication may determine the foreign talent from the credits, or getthis information from the metadata or from an online query for the mediaasset. The media guidance application may send a query to the foreigntalent in order to receive the templates.

An alternative method for retrieving the set of speech templatescorresponding to the character featured in the first scene is describedbelow. In such embodiments, the media guidance application may, whileretrieving the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene, retrieve an original speech correspondingto the media asset. For example, the media guidance application mayretrieve the original, English speech, for the movie “Driven.” The mediaguidance application may retrieve the original speech from a local orremote database, or any other digital or analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to retrieve the set of speech templates,after retrieving the original speech, the media guidance application mayretrieve a portion of the original speech corresponding to the firstscene. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve theportion of the English speech that corresponds to the first scene of theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidance application may usethe metadata for the media asset in order to determine a temporalrelation between the speech and the scenes. Thus, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve the needed portion of the original speech thatcorresponds to the first scene. In some embodiments, after retrievingthe portion of the original speech, the media guidance application mayretrieve the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene based on the retrieved portion of theoriginal speech corresponding to the first scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve speech templates based on the originalEnglish speech, for when Stallone sounds angry, calm, gentle, loving,alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing. For example, the media guidance application may identifyscenes in which the character is supposed to sound angry and use theportion of the original speech of the scene as the correspondingtemplate.

In order to compare the retrieved portion to each speech template, insome embodiments, the media guidance application may retrieve a firstset of vocal characteristics corresponding to the retrieved portion. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding tothe dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” Themedia guidance application may use speech-analyzing algorithms todetermine the first set of vocal characteristics. In some embodiments,in addition to the first set of vocal characteristics, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a second set of vocal characteristicscorresponding to a speech template from the set of speech templatescorresponding to the character featured in the first scene. For example,the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding tothe each of the templates in which Stallone sounds angry, calm, gentle,loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing. The media guidance application may use speech-analyzingalgorithms to determine the second set of vocal characteristics.

At 114, the media guidance application may determine whether the speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches thecontext speech characteristic for the context of the first scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that Stallone issupposed to sound alarmed in the first scene but he actually soundsgentle. The media guidance application may query a database to receive alook-up table. The database may be a local or remote storage of ananalog or digital kind. The media guidance application may receive thelook-up table via wireless or wired communications. The media guidanceapplication may parse the look-up table in order to determine if thespeech characteristic matches the context of the first scene.

At 116, the media guidance application may, in response to determiningthat the speech characteristic of the character featured in the firstscene fails to match the context speech characteristic for the contextof the first scene, perform a function to adjust the portion of thedubbed speech so that the speech characteristic of the characterfeatured in the first scene matches the context speech characteristicfor the context of the first scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may adjust Stallone's speech in the first scene so that hesounds alarmed instead of gentle.

In order to perform the function to adjust the portion of the dubbedspeech so that the speech characteristic matches the context of thescene, in some embodiments, the media guidance application may retrievea first set of vocal characteristics corresponding to the portion of thedubbed speech. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythmcorresponding to the dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbedmovie “Driven.” The media guidance application may use speech-analyzingalgorithms to determine the first set of vocal characteristics. In someembodiments, additionally to retrieving the first set of vocalcharacteristics, the media guidance application may identify a speechtemplate from the set of speech templates corresponding to the characterfeatured in the first scene, that has a speech characteristic thatmatches the context speech characteristic for the context of the firstscene. For example, the media guidance application may retrieve thetemplate in which Stallone sounds alarmed. The media guidanceapplication may retrieve a look-up table, from a local or remotedatabase of analog or digital kind, that contains entries for eachcontext of the scenes and a corresponding speech template.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after identifying the needed speech template,the media guidance application may retrieve a second set of vocalcharacteristics corresponding to the speech template that has the speechcharacteristic that matched the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay retrieve the set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate,and rhythm corresponding to the template in which Stallone soundsalarmed. In some embodiments, after retrieving the first and the secondset of vocal characteristics, the media guidance application mayidentify a first vocal characteristic from the first set of vocalcharacteristics that does not match a corresponding second vocalcharacteristic from the second set of vocal characteristics. Forexample, the media guidance application may determine that the speechfrom the first scene has a different rhythm than the template in whichStallone sounds alarmed. The media guidance application may usespeech-analyzing algorithms to determine if the vocal characteristicsmatch or do not match. The media guidance application may retrieve anallowable error from a local or remote storage that will indicate by howmuch the first and second vocal characteristics may vary in order tocount as a match.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, if the first vocal characteristic exists, themedia guidance application may adjust the first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics to match the correspondingsecond vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application may adjustthe rhythm of the speech from the first scene to be the same as therhythm of the template in which Stallone sounds alarmed. The mediaguidance application may vary a vocal characteristic by passing thespeech through a modifying filter designed to change only the neededvocal characteristic.

Another way to perform the function to adjust the portion of the dubbedspeech so that the speech characteristic matches the context of thescene is exemplified in the embodiment below. In such embodiments, themedia guidance application may, while performing the function to adjustthe portion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic ofthe character featured in the first scene matches the context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene, receive metadatacorresponding to a second scene from the plurality of scenes. Forexample, the media guidance application may receive metadata for asecond scene from the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The media guidanceapplication may receive the metadata from a local storage, a remotedatabase, or any other digital or analog storage. The media guidanceapplication may query the storage for the media asset before, after orat the same time as receiving the media asset, the query including anidentifier for the media asset. The media guidance application may storethe metadata in a local storage, a remote database, or any other digitalor analog storage.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after receiving the metadata, the mediaguidance application may determine the context of the second scene basedon the metadata corresponding to the second scene. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the second scene is anaction scene.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, after determining the context, the mediaguidance application may retrieve a context speech characteristic forthe context of the second scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may retrieve from a look-up table that the speechcharacteristic is alarmed. In some embodiments, additionally toretrieving the context speech characteristic, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene matches the context speech characteristic forthe context of the second scene. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed inboth scenes.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, the media guidance application may retrieve aportion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the second scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the dialog of thesecond scene. In some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve a first set of vocal characteristics corresponding to theportion of the dubbed speech corresponding to the first scene. Forexample, the media guidance application may retrieve the set of vocalcharacteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding tothe dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, additionally to retrieving the first set ofvocal characteristics, the media guidance application may retrieve asecond set of vocal characteristics corresponding to the portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the second scene. For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the set of vocal characteristics likepitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm corresponding to the dialog in thesecond scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” In some embodiments,after retrieving the first and second set of vocal characteristics, themedia guidance application may identify a first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics that does not match acorresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the dialog in the first scene has a different rhythm thanthe dialog in the second scene.

In some embodiments, in order to perform the function to adjust theportion of the dubbed speech so that the speech characteristic matchesthe context of the scene, the media guidance application may adjust thefirst vocal characteristic from the first set of vocal characteristicsto match the corresponding second vocal characteristic from the secondset of vocal characteristics. For example, the media guidanceapplication may adjust the rhythm of the dialog in the first scene tomatch that of the second scene.

Additionally, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayretrieve a portion of an adjusted dubbed speech corresponding to thefirst scene. For example, the media guidance application may retrievethe adjusted dubbed speech of Stallone from the first scene. In someembodiments, after retrieving the needed portion, the media guidanceapplication may compare the retrieved portion of the adjusted dubbedspeech corresponding to the first scene to each speech template from theset of speech templates corresponding to the character featured in thefirst scene to identify a speech template that corresponds to theretrieved portion of the adjusted dubbed speech. For example, the mediaguidance application may compare the dialog in the first scene of theJapanese dubbed movie “Driven” to each of the templates in whichStallone sounds angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic,confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, and accusing and identify thatStallone now sounds alarmed in the first scene of the Japanese dubbedmovie “Driven.”

Further, in some embodiments, the media guidance application mayidentify a speech characteristic associated with the identified speechtemplate that corresponds to the retrieved portion of the adjusteddubbed speech. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat Stallone now sounds alarmed. In some embodiments, after identifyingthe speech characteristic, the media guidance application may determinethat the identified speech characteristic of the character featured inthe first scene that corresponds to the retrieved portion of theadjusted dubbed speech matches the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine that Stallone is supposed to sound alarmed and indeed doessound alarmed.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, chat sessions, social media,applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g.,parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 2-3 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 2-3 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 2-3 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 2 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 200arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 200 may include grid 202 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 204, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 206, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 202 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 208, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 210. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 210 may be provided inprogram information region 212. Region 212 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g., FTP).

Grid 202 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 214, recorded content listing 216, andInternet content listing 218. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 200 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings214, 216, and 218 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 202 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 202. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 220. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 220.)

Display 200 may also include video region 222, and options region 226.Video region 222 may allow the user to view and/or preview programs thatare currently available, will be available, or were available to theuser. The content of video region 222 may correspond to, or beindependent from, one of the listings displayed in grid 202. Griddisplays including a video region are sometimes referred to aspicture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and their functionalitiesare described in greater detail in Satterfield et al. U.S. Pat. No.6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,239,794,issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated by reference hereinin their entireties. PIG displays may be included in other mediaguidance application display screens of the embodiments describedherein.

Options region 226 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 226 may be part of display 200 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 226 may concern features related to program listings in grid 202or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay 102, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.Tivo.com, from other media guidance applicationsthe user accesses, from other interactive applications the useraccesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.), and/orobtain information about the user from other sources that the mediaguidance application may access. As a result, a user can be providedwith a unified guidance application experience across the user'sdifferent user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 5 . Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 3 . Video mosaic display 300 includes selectable options 302 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 300, television listings option 304 isselected, thus providing listings 306, 308, 310, and 312 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 300 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 308 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 314 and text portion 316.Media portion 314 and/or text portion 316 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed in media portion 314 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 300 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 306 islarger than listings 308, 310, and 312), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Nov. 12, 2009,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 4 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 400. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 5 .User equipment device 400 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 402. I/O path 402 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 404, which includesprocessing circuitry 406 and storage 408. Control circuitry 404 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 402. I/O path 402 may connect control circuitry 404 (andspecifically processing circuitry 406) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 404 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 406. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 404 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 408). Specifically, control circuitry 404 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 404 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 404 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 404 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modem for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 5 ). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 408 thatis part of control circuitry 404. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 408 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 5 , may be used to supplementstorage 408 or instead of storage 408.

Control circuitry 404 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 404 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 400. Circuitry 404 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 408 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 400, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 408.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 404 using user inputinterface 410. User input interface 410 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 412 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400. For example, display 412 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 410may be integrated with or combined with display 412. Display 412 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 412 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 412 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 412.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry404. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 404.Speakers 414 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 400 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 412 may be played throughspeakers 414. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers414.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 400. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage408), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 404 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 408 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 404 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 410. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 410 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 400 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 400. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 404 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 404) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 400. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 400.Equipment device 400 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 410 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 400 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 410.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 400 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 404). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 404 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 404. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 404. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 400 of FIG. 4 can be implemented in system 500 ofFIG. 5 as user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504,wireless user communications device 506, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 4 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, or awireless user communications device 506. For example, user televisionequipment 502 may, like some user computer equipment 504, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 504 may, like some television equipment 502, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 504, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 506.

In system 500, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 5 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 502, user computer equipment 504, wireless user communicationsdevice 506) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.Tivo.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 514.Namely, user television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, andwireless user communications device 506 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 514 via communications paths 508, 510, and 512, respectively.Communications network 514 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 508, 510, and 512 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 512 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 5 it is awireless path and paths 508 and 510 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 508, 510, and 512, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 514.

System 500 includes content source 516 and media guidance data source518 coupled to communications network 514 via communication paths 520and 522, respectively. Paths 520 and 522 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 508, 510,and 512. Communications with the content source 516 and media guidancedata source 518 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 5 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 516 and media guidance data source 518 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 516 and 518 withuser equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 are shown as throughcommunications network 514, in some embodiments, sources 516 and 518 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 508, 510, and 512.

Content source 516 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 516 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 516 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 516 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,892, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 518 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 518may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 518 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 518 mayprovide user equipment devices 502, 504, and 506 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions that entice the user tokeep the particular service or source indicated by the score as one towhich the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 408, and executedby control circuitry 404 of a user equipment device 400. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 404 of user equipment device 400and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 518) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 518), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 518 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices502, 504, and 506 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 500 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 5 .

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 514.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. PatentPublication No. 2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a web site via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 516 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 502 and user computer equipment 504may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 506 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 514. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 516 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 518. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 502, user computer equipment 504, and wirelessuser communications device 506. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 504 or wireless usercommunications device 506 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 504. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 514. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 4 .

As referred herein, the term “in response to” refers to initiated as aresult of. For example, a first action being performed in response to asecond action may include interstitial steps between the first actionand the second action. As referred herein, the term “directly inresponse to” refers to caused by. For example, a first action beingperformed directly in response to a second action may not includeinterstitial steps between the first action and the second action.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for detecting andcorrecting a mismatch between a speech characteristic of a portion of adubbed speech of a character featured in a scene and context of thescene, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Process600 may be executed by control circuitry 404 (e.g., in a mannerinstructed to control circuitry 404 by the media guidance application).Control circuitry 404 may be part of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 600 begins at step 602. At 602, control circuitry 404 detectsdubbed speech in a media asset. For example, control circuitry 404detects dubbed speech in the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.” The processfor detecting dubbed speech is discussed in more detail in connectionwith FIG. 7 below.

At 604, control circuitry 404 receives metadata corresponding to themedia asset. For example, control circuitry 404, in response todetecting dubbed speech in the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven,” receivesthe metadata of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 606, control circuitry 404 determines a plurality of scenes in themedia asset based on the metadata. For example, control circuitry 404determines that the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven” has one hundredscenes, based on the received metadata.

At 608, control circuitry 404 receives metadata corresponding to a firstscene from the plurality of scenes. For example, control circuitry 404receives the metadata corresponding to the first scene of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven.”

At 610, control circuitry 404 determines context of the first scenebased on the metadata corresponding to the first scene. For example,control circuitry 404 determines that the first scene is a car chasescene and thus an action scene.

At 612, control circuitry 404 retrieves a context speech characteristicfor the context of the first scene. For example, control circuitry 404determines from a look-up table the speech characteristic should bealarmed for a scene that is an action scene.

At 614, control circuitry 404 retrieves a portion of the dubbed speechcorresponding to the first scene. For example, control circuitry 404retrieves the dialog that occurs during the first scene of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven.”

At 616, control circuitry 404 retrieves a set of speech templatescorresponding to a character featured in the first scene, wherein eachspeech template from the set of speech templates corresponds to adifferent speech characteristic of the character featured in the firstscene. For example, control circuitry 404 retrieves, from a database,speech templates for Stallone for when he sounds angry, calm, gentle,loving, alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing.

At 618, control circuitry 404 compares the retrieved portion of thedubbed speech corresponding to the first scene to each speech templatefrom the set of speech templates corresponding to the character featuredin the first scene to identify a speech template that corresponds to theretrieved portion. For example, control circuitry 404 compares thedialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven” to eachof the templates in which Stallone sounds angry, calm, gentle, loving,alarmed, scared, comic, confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, andaccusing and identifies that Stallone sounds gentle in the first sceneof the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 620, control circuitry 404 identifies a speech characteristicassociated with the identified speech template. For example, controlcircuitry 404 identifies that the template in which Stallone soundsgentle corresponds to the speech characteristic “gentle.”

At 622, control circuitry 404 determines whether the identified speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches thecontext speech characteristic for the context of the first scene. Forexample control circuitry 404 determines that Stallone is supposed tosound alarmed in the first scene but he actually sounds gentle.

At 624, control circuitry 404 determines that the identified speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene fails tomatch the context speech characteristic for the context of the firstscene, and process 600 continues to step 624. At 624, control circuitry404 performs a function to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech sothat the speech characteristic of the character featured in the firstscene matches the context speech characteristic for the context of thefirst scene. For example, control circuitry 404 adjusts Stallone'sspeech in the first scene so that he sounds alarmed instead of gentle.The process for performing the function to adjust the portion of thedubbed speech is discussed in more detail in connection with FIGS. 8 and9 below.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the identified speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches thecontext speech characteristic for the context of the first scene,process 600 ends at step 626.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for detectingdubbed speech in the media asset, in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure. Process 700 may be executed by control circuitry 404(e.g., in a manner instructed to control circuitry 404 by the mediaguidance application). Control circuitry 404 may be part of a remoteserver separated from the user equipment by way of communicationsnetwork 514.

Process 700 begins at step 702. At 702, control circuitry 404 receivesthe media asset. For example, control circuitry 404 receives from aserver the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 704, control circuitry 404 retrieves video information correspondingto the media asset. For example, control circuitry 404 retrieves thevideo files corresponding to the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 706, control circuitry 404 retrieves audio information correspondingto the media asset. For example, control circuitry 404 retrieves theaudio files corresponding to the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 708, control circuitry 404 retrieves speech information of thecharacter corresponding to the audio information. For example, controlcircuitry 404 retrieves the part of the audio files that corresponds toSylvester Stallone.

At 710, control circuitry 404 retrieves facial movements of thecharacter corresponding to the video information. For example, controlcircuitry 404 retrieves Stallone's facial movements from the videofiles.

At 712, control circuitry 404 determines whether the facial movements ofthe character correspond to the speech information. For example, controlcircuitry 404 determines if what is Stallone saying corresponds to hisfacial movements.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the facial movements of thecharacter do not correspond to the speech information, process 700continues to step 714. At 714, control circuitry 404 detects the dubbedspeech in the media asset. For example, if what Stallone is saying doesnot correspond to his facial movements, control circuitry 404 determinesthat the speech is dubbed.

If control circuitry 404 determines that the facial movements of thecharacter correspond to the speech information, process 700 continues tostep 716. At 716, control circuitry 404 ends.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for performing thefunction to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech so that the speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches thecontext speech characteristic for the context of the first scene using aspeech template, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Process 800 may be executed by control circuitry 404 (e.g., in a mannerinstructed to control circuitry 404 by the media guidance application).Control circuitry 404 may be part of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 800 starts at step 802. At 802, control circuitry 404 retrievesa first set of vocal characteristics corresponding to the portion of thedubbed speech. For example, control circuitry 404 retrieves the set ofvocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythm correspondingto the dialog in the first scene of the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At 804, control circuitry 404 identifies a speech template from the setof speech templates corresponding to the character featured in the firstscene, that has a speech characteristic that matches the context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene. For example, controlcircuitry 404 retrieves the template in which Stallone sounds alarmed.

At 806, control circuitry 404 retrieves a second set of vocalcharacteristics corresponding to the speech template that has the speechcharacteristic that matched the context speech characteristic for thecontext of the first scene. For example, control circuitry 404 retrievesthe set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, and rhythmcorresponding to the template in which Stallone sounds alarmed.

At 808, control circuitry 404 identifies a first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics that does not match acorresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, control circuitry 404 determines that thespeech from the first scene has a different rhythm than the template inwhich Stallone sounds alarmed.

At 810, control circuitry 404 adjusts the first vocal characteristicfrom the first set of vocal characteristics to match the correspondingsecond vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, control circuitry 404 adjusts the rhythmof the speech from the first scene to be the same as the rhythm of thetemplate in which Stallone sounds alarmed.

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative flowchart of a process for performing thefunction to adjust the portion of the dubbed speech so that the speechcharacteristic of the character featured in the first scene matches thecontext speech characteristic for the context of the first scene using asecond scene, in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.Process 900 may be executed by control circuitry 404 (e.g., in a mannerinstructed to control circuitry 404 by the media guidance application).Control circuitry 404 may be part of a remote server separated from theuser equipment by way of communications network 514.

Process 900 starts at step 902. At 902, control circuitry 404 receivesmetadata corresponding to a second scene from the plurality of scenes.For example, control circuitry 404 receives metadata for a second scenefrom the Japanese dubbed movie “Driven.”

At step 904, control circuitry 404 determines context of the secondscene based on the metadata corresponding to the second scene. Forexample, control circuitry 404 determines that the second scene is anaction scene.

At step 906, control circuitry 404 retrieves a context speechcharacteristic for the context of the second scene. For example, controlcircuitry 404 retrieves from a look-up table that the speechcharacteristic is alarmed.

At step 908, control circuitry 404 determines that the context speechcharacteristic for the context of the first scene matches the contextspeech characteristic for the context of the second scene. For example,control circuitry 404 determines that Stallone is supposed sound alarmedin both scenes.

At step 910, control circuitry 404 retrieves a portion of the dubbedspeech corresponding to the second scene. For example, control circuitry404 retrieves the dialog of the second scene.

At step 912, control circuitry 404 retrieves a first set of vocalcharacteristics corresponding to the portion of the dubbed speechcorresponding to the first scene. For example, control circuitry 404retrieves the set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, andrhythm corresponding to the dialog in the first scene of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven.”

At step 914, control circuitry 404 retrieves a second set of vocalcharacteristics corresponding to the portion of the dubbed speechcorresponding to the second scene. For example, control circuitry 404retrieves the set of vocal characteristics like pitch, pauses, rate, andrhythm corresponding to the dialog in the second scene of the Japanesedubbed movie “Driven.”

At step 916, control circuitry 404 identifies a first vocalcharacteristic from the first set of vocal characteristics that does notmatch a corresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set ofvocal characteristics. For example, control circuitry 404 determinesthat the dialog in the first scene has a different rhythm than thedialog in the second scene.

At step 918, control circuitry 404 adjusts the first vocalcharacteristic from the first set of vocal characteristics to match thecorresponding second vocal characteristic from the second set of vocalcharacteristics. For example, control circuitry 404 adjusts the rhythmof the dialog in the first scene to match that of the second scene.

It should be noted that processes 600-900 or any step thereof could beperformed on, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 2-5 .For example, any of processes 600-900 may be executed by controlcircuitry 404 (FIG. 4 ) as instructed by control circuitry implementedon user equipment 502, 504, 506 (FIG. 5 ), and/or a user equipment forselecting a recommendation. In addition, one or more steps of processes600-900 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more steps ofany other process or embodiment.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of each of FIGS. 6-9may be used with any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition,the steps and descriptions described in relation to FIGS. 6-9 may bedone in alternative orders or in parallel to further the purposes ofthis disclosure. For example, each of these steps may be performed inany order or in parallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lagor increase the speed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should benoted that any of the devices or equipment discussed in relation toFIGS. 2-5 could be used to perform one or more of the steps in FIGS. 6-9.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM device, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent disclosure may be executed using processing circuitry. Theprocessing circuitry, for instance, may be a general purpose processor,a customized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or a field-programmablegate array (FPGA) within user equipment 400, media content source 516,or media guidance data source 518. For example, a profile, as describedherein, may be stored in, and retrieved from, storage 408 of FIG. 4 , ormedia guidance data source 518 of FIG. 5 .

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

While some portions of this disclosure may make reference to“convention,” any such reference is merely for the purpose of providingcontext to the invention(s) of the instant disclosure, and does not formany admission as to what constitutes the state of the art.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: analyzing metadata of amedia content portion to determine a context of the media contentportion, the media content portion comprising audio and video; analyzingthe media content portion to identify modifications to the audio in themedia content portion to cause the audio in the media content portion tomatch the context of the media content portion; modifying the audio inthe media content portion to match the context of the media contentportion using the identified modifications to the audio in the mediacontent portion; and generating for output the media content portionwith the modified audio.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:determining that the audio in the media content portion does not matchwith the context; and in response to the determining that the audio inthe media content portion does not match with the context, performingthe modifying the audio in the media content portion to match with thecontext.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: retrieving afirst set of vocal characteristics for the audio in the media contentportion; and retrieving a second set of vocal characteristics that matchthe context; adjusting a particular characteristic of the first set ofvocal characteristics to match a corresponding characteristic of thesecond set of vocal characteristics.
 4. The method of claim 3, whereinthe particular characteristic is one or more of a pitch, pause, rate, orrhythm.
 5. The method of claim of claim 3, further comprising:determining that the particular characteristic of the first set of vocalcharacteristics does not match the corresponding characteristic of thesecond set of vocal characteristics; and performing the adjusting of theparticular characteristic in response to determining that the particularcharacteristic does not match the corresponding characteristic.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: determining a speechcharacteristic corresponding to the context of the media contentportion; wherein modifying the audio in the media content portioncomprises modifying speech audio to match the speech characteristic. 7.The method of claim 6, wherein the speech characteristic comprises oneor more of angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic,confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, or accusing.
 8. The method of claim6, further comprising: retrieving a speech template corresponding to thecontext, the speech template comprising the speech characteristic;determining that the speech audio in the media content portion does notmatch the speech characteristic; performing the modifying the audio inresponse to determining that the speech audio in the media contentportion does not match the speech characteristic of the speech template.9. A system comprising: a memory storing a media content portion;control circuitry configured to: analyze metadata of the media contentportion to determine a context of the media content portion, the mediacontent portion comprising audio and video; analyze the media contentportion to identify modifications to the audio in the media contentportion to cause the audio in the media content portion to match thecontext of the media content portion; modify the audio in the mediacontent portion to match the context of the media content portion usingthe identified modifications to the audio in the media content portion;and generate for output the media content portion with the modifiedaudio.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine that the audio in the media contentportion does not match with the context; and in response to thedetermining that the audio in the media content portion does not matchwith the context, performing the modifying the audio in the mediacontent portion to match with the context.
 11. The system of claim 9,wherein the control circuitry is further configured to: retrieve a firstset of vocal characteristics for the audio in the media content portion;and retrieve a second set of vocal characteristics that match thecontext; adjust a particular characteristic of the first set of vocalcharacteristics to match a corresponding characteristic of the secondset of vocal characteristics.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein theparticular characteristic is one or more of a pitch, pause, rate, orrhythm.
 13. The system of claim 11, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: determine that the particular characteristic ofthe first set of vocal characteristics does not match the correspondingcharacteristic of the second set of vocal characteristics; and performthe adjusting of the particular characteristic in response todetermining that the particular characteristic does not match thecorresponding characteristic.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein thecontrol circuitry is further configured to: determine a speechcharacteristic corresponding to the context of the media contentportion; wherein modifying the audio in the media content portioncomprises modifying speech audio to match the speech characteristic. 15.The system of claim 14, wherein the speech characteristic comprises oneor more of angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic,confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, or accusing.
 16. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:retrieve a speech template corresponding to the context, the speechtemplate comprising the speech characteristic; determine that the speechaudio in the media content portion does not match the speechcharacteristic; perform the modifying the audio in response todetermining that the speech audio in the media content portion does notmatch the speech characteristic of the speech template.
 17. Anon-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions encodedthereon to cause control circuitry to: analyze metadata of a mediacontent portion to determine a context of the media content portion, themedia content portion comprising audio and video; analyze the mediacontent portion to identify modifications to the audio in the mediacontent portion to cause the audio in the media content portion to matchthe context of the media content portion; modify the audio in the mediacontent portion to match the context of the media content portion usingthe identified modifications to the audio in the media content portion;and generate for output the media content portion with the modifiedaudio.
 18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17,wherein the instructions cause the control circuitry to: determine thatthe audio in the media content portion does not match with the context;and in response to the determining that the audio in the media contentportion does not match with the context, performing the modifying theaudio in the media content portion to match with the context.
 19. Thenon-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein theinstructions cause the control circuitry to: retrieve a first set ofvocal characteristics for the audio in the media content portion; andretrieve a second set of vocal characteristics that match the context;adjust a particular characteristic of the first set of vocalcharacteristics to match a corresponding characteristic of the secondset of vocal characteristics; wherein the particular characteristic isone or more of a pitch, pause, rate, or rhythm.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the instructions cause thecontrol circuitry to: determine a speech characteristic corresponding tothe context of the media content portion; wherein modifying the audio inthe media content portion comprises modifying speech audio to match thespeech characteristic; wherein the speech characteristic comprises oneor more of angry, calm, gentle, loving, alarmed, scared, comic,confused, excited, doubtful, urgent, or accusing.